Geez, it's August already? I'm shaking my head over how fast time is flying in 2020. When I think back I'm going to wonder if it really ever even happened.
ALSO, it's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for an Insecure Writer's Support Group meet-up. If you'd like to join, go HERE.
Thanks to our host Alex Cavanaugh, and the awesome co-hosts for the August 5 posting of the IWSG: Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!
This month's optional question is:
Quote: "Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don't write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be."
Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn't planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?
Almost from the very beginning, before I even knew what I was writing, before I knew enough to pick a genre, I wrote cozy mysteries. I've tried writing other genres but it doesn't turn out well. I'm a fixer. I spend my life trying to make sure everyone is okay and trying to make things right.
So to write worlds where my characters are in extreme danger, and to make bad things happen to them, or to kill them off (when blood is no doubt involved *shivers*) goes so hard against the grain that...I can't do it.
Nope, nope, nope.
My books feature ghosts, so the victims are already dead.I don't have to kill them.
See how I got around that whole violence thing? LOL.
What about you?
Do you swap genres?
Love it, Gwen! I have a foot in both camps. My writing leans towards the Gothic genre, so I tend to have danger and ghosts in my stories. I plan on writing a cozy mystery one day, they sound like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteThey are so fun to write. And I put them in just a little bit of danger. LOL.
DeleteYou know your genre and strengths and stick with them.
ReplyDeleteYes. But I do have other equally "cozy" ideas for screenplays etc that I can't wait to try out.
DeleteI love stories in more than one genre. I write fantasy but may try a mystery or a mystery/fantasy some day. Good that you know what you like to write.
ReplyDeleteI definitely read widely, but nothing too stressful or I might have to skip ahead to the resolution. LOL.
DeleteHow great to find your creative niche!! Good for you, Gwen. Write what you LOVE!!
ReplyDeleteJust doing my thang...
DeleteHi Gwen, I love Cosy Mysteries!
ReplyDeleteEspecially in these stressful times, right? They are a nice escape from reality.
DeleteCozy is your thing!
ReplyDeleteIt sure is. I'm just going to keep writing cozies and get better and better. LOL.
DeleteSurely something bad happens to them, right? It doesn't have to be huge. A hang nail...that's bad. LOL! :P
ReplyDeleteOh sure, sometimes they get hurt and get into trouble. Just nothing too violent--that wouldn't be a "cozy".
DeleteIt does sound like you might have led the way for cozies. Now, every genre has a 'cozy' version.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I think Agatha Christie may have beaten me there, but cozies are becoming quite popular, with many different sub-genres to it as well.
DeleteI hear you about those characters. You can't help but want them to be okay, yet that's exactly the opposite of what the story demands--at least until The End.
ReplyDeleteOf course there's trouble, etc., but the nature of a cozy is no on-screen violence or sex--the bad stuff happens "off-screen". In my stories, the murder has already happened. So the solving of the mystery (and the trouble they come across while doing it) and the quirky characters are what cozy readers like about it.
DeleteLove your solution to the dislike of violence. I’ve gotten around that by killing people we don’t know or who we dislike, but the more I write, the less I can leave them as cut-outs, and they are becoming more of an emotional burden for my MC and for me. I do like to make my characters have narrow squeaks :) I think it’s okay in a cozy to have non-lethal violence on-screen, but no gory details.
ReplyDeleteThat's it exactly Rebecca. I can't take the emotional burden, LOL. And I do have fight scenes that my characters go through, but nothing gory, as you say.
DeleteVery clever. What a great answer. I always know my genre when I start a project too.
ReplyDeleteIt happened organically for me--just fell into place. LOL.
Delete